1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a provider system for providing a variety of services via a communication network to a terminal connected to the network, and to a fault notification method for posting on a web page notification of failure of a service due to a fault.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet has seen exponential growth in recent years, and many people using personal computers at home now have provider connectivity for browsing web sites and exchanging e-mail. In addition to PCs, people are increasingly utilizing portable telephones and terminals attached to portable phones, such as PDAs, to access the Internet and exchange mail. The use of services provided through a communication network such as the Internet is becoming increasingly common in peoples' daily lives.
In the event that a fault occurs in the system of a provider of an internet-based service providing such services, a system administrator is required to post notification of the fault and consequent service failure on a web page for the information of users. In a situation that multiple services are provided by a system, before service failure information can be uploaded onto a web page, a system administrator must determine, from among a plurality of devices comprising the provider system, which device has failed. The administrator must then determine how serious the fault is, decide if the fault will have resulted in a failure of any service, and if yes, specify the name of the service affected by the fault. However, use of this method places a great burden on system administrators.
Thus, in the conventional art, a system administrator requires comprehensive knowledge of both the devices which comprise a provider system, and the tasks carried out by the devices. The system administrator must also constantly monitor the functioning of the system, and, in the event of failure of a device in the system, be able to assess its likely impact on a service.
If a service fails, potential users need to be informed promptly. However, it will be appreciated from the preceding description that, in the conventional art, prompt notification is not possible. If a device in a provider system fails, a system administrator must complete the following actions: locate the fault; determine the nature of the fault; assess its likely impact on a service; and, finally, upload notification of the fault and consequent service failure onto a web page. A further problem of the conventional art is that it is not possible to provide reliable information to end users about a projected restoration time of a failed service.
From this description, it will be apparent that in the conventional art end users of services are subject to undesirable delays in obtaining information about a service failure. Further, they are unable to obtain reliable information about a projected time when a service will once more become available.
The present invention has been made with a view to overcoming the stated problems of the prior art, and has as its object the provision of rapid and accurate notification of service fault information to end users of a provider system. In particular, the object of the present invention is to provide a method of posting automatically, on a web site, accurate service fault information data; the data including the name of a failed service, and also a projected restoration time.